Sri Aurobindo

Collected Poems

CWSA.- Volume 2

Part Seven. Pondicherry
Incomplete Poems from Manuscripts, c. 1927 – 1947

The Fire King and the Messenger

The Fire King

O soul who com’st fire-mantled from the earth

Into the silence of the seven skies,

Art thou an heir of the spiritual birth?

Art thou an ancient guest of Paradise?

The Messenger

I am the Messenger of the human race,

I am a¹ Pioneer from death and night.

I am the nympholept of Beauty’s face,

I am the hunter of the immortal Light.

The Fire King

What flame wearst² thou that wraps thee with its power

Protecting from the Guardians of the Way?

What wanderer born from the eternal Hour?

What fragment of the inconceivable Ray?

The Messenger

It is the fire of an awakened soul

Aspiring from death to reach Eternity,

The wings of sacrifice flaming to their goal,

The burning godhead of humanity.

The Fire King

What seekst thou here, child of the transient ways?

Wouldst thou be free and still in endless³ peace?

Or gaze for ever on the Eternal’s face,

Hushed in an incommunicable release?

The Messenger

I claim for men the peace that shall not fail,

I claim for earth the unwounded⁴ timeless bliss,

I seek God-strength for souls that suffer in hell,

God-light to fill the ignorant abyss.

The Fire King

Ascend no more with thy presumptuous prayer

But safe return to the forsaken globe,

Wake not heaven’s Lightning from its slumber’s lair

To clothe thee with the anguish of its robe.

Earlier edition of this work: Sri Aurobindo Birth Century Library: Set in 30 volumes.- Volume 5.- Collected Poems.- Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Asram, 1972.- 625 p.

¹ 1972 ed. SABCL, vol.5: the

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² 1972 ed. SABCL, vol.5: wearest

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³ 1972 ed. SABCL, vol.5: deathless

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⁴ 1972 ed. SABCL, vol.5: unsorrowing

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